The Yankees' fifth-inning collapse will live on in infamy

Good morning, I'm Dan Gartland. I don't think anything you'll see this Halloween will be as scary as the Yankees' defense in the fifth inning.

In today's SI:AM:

🤦‍♂️ The Yankees' Mistakes
🏆 The Dodgers' unexpected approach
🤔 Embiid's strange injury situation

The Los Angeles Dodgers left no doubt who was the better team in this year's World Series, taking advantage of a litany of New York Yankees mistakes in Game 5 on Wednesday to win their first full-season championship since 1988. For the Dodgers, it was confirmation of what had been clear all season: that they are the best team in the MLB. It was a bitter defeat made even more unpleasant for the Yankees How It happened – the coming season collapsed in a disastrous innings that will go down in postseason history.

The Yankees didn't actually lose the series in the fifth inning of Game 5. A best-of-seven series has too many defining moments for a single inning to make the difference. You can point to other mistakes, like Juan Soto's throwing error in the eighth inning of Game 1, which allowed Shohei Ohtani to advance to third and later score on a sacrifice fly, or manager Aaron Boone's call in the 10th inning of that one Game to insert Nestor Cortes pitches for the first time in a month, only to give up the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. Or you can point to the Yankees' generally sluggish offense in Games 2 and 3, in which New York batted a total of .145 and struck out 18 times. Those were the reasons the Yankees fell 3-0 in the series, a hole that no team in World Series history – and only one team in postseason baseball history – had ever climbed out of.

To complete an unprecedented comeback from a 3-0 deficit, the Yankees would have had to play four games of essentially flawless baseball against a team that finished this season with the best record in the majors. Instead, they played 13 great innings before the wheels fell off in spectacular fashion.

New York's lineup came to life in an 11-4 win in Game 4 to avoid a sweep and continued to hum as the Yankees took a 5-0 lead in Game 5. Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning. Anthony Volpe stayed hot with a double to take the lead in the second and was driven home by Alex Verdugo, chasing starter Jack Flaherty. Giancarlo Stanton led off the third with his seventh home run of these playoffs, breaking Alex Rodriguez's franchise record for most home runs in a single postseason. Meanwhile, Gerrit Cole had not allowed a hit through four innings. Everything went well and it seemed like the series would return to Los Angeles.

But then the Yankees let everything slip away in a disastrous innings. Kiké Hernández led off the fifth with a single to break Cole's no-hit streak. Then Tommy Edman hit a routine liner up the middle that Judge inexplicably dropped. Will Smith hit a grounder to shortstop and Volpe tried to reach the lead runner at third, but his throw missed Chisholm and everyone was safe. Suddenly the Dodgers had the bases full and no one was out.

However, Cole relented and knocked out Gavin Lux and Ohtani. He then got Mookie Betts to chase away a slider by gently moving it to first, and for a split second it seemed as if Cole would get through the inning unscathed. Only Cole didn't cover the bases. He gestured in vain for Anthony Rizzo to take him to the bag himself, but Rizzo was too far from the base and expected his pitcher to make the play, so the much faster Betts could reach him safely.

The fumble allowed the Dodgers to score their first run of the game. Freddie Freeman followed with a two-run single and then Teoscar Hernández drove in two more with a double to tie the game at 5-5. That big early lead evaporated in a flash – without Cole allowing a earned run.

“If you give a team like the Dodgers a few extra outs, they’re going to capitalize.” Judge said. “But it comes back to me. I have to make this play and the other two probably won’t happen.”

The error-filled inning wasn't the reason the Yankees lost the series, but it did end their hopes of a comeback. It would have been an embarrassment to be swept. However, it would have been even worse to lose the way they did.

…things I saw last night:

5. Aaron Judge's leaping catch to rob Freddie Freeman of extra bases. How could he make a play like that and then drop an easy play the next inning?
4. The scene in Los Angeles after the Dodgers won.
3. The students' reaction to Shohei Ohtani High School as he greeted her during the postgame show.
2. Aaron Boone's reaction to Giancarlo Stanton's home run live during an in-game interview.
1. This Multi-angle view of the final.